Happy Valentines Day!

The boys had fun with their Vday boxes saved from last years Home Depo project. We put them out by the front door hoping someone would stop by and drop a little note or piece of candy. Thankfully Oma was willing to participate! In the end it was fun checking the front door EVERY single day for two weeks. Sometimes we were surprised! Happy Valentine's Day!

Bowling fun

Nathaniel wanted to go bowling again for his birthday. Truth be told, he wanted to go in the "ticket tornado" at the bowling alley. He also requested to go "glow in the dark" bowling. I checked around town and trying to line up these two proved rather challenging. Many place do "glow in the dark" bowling but it's usually after bedtime. And the ticket tornado is only available for certain party packages which we opted not to go for. So, we ended up at a bowling alley near our house. Nate (and Logan) worked on making glow in the dark necklaces for all his friends. We were all set... and a winter snow storm hit so we postponed for a week. Today Nate was so excited. We got to the alley and waited for his friends. Everybody got their shoes and we had a fun time!

Snow Adventure

Snow falling!!!! We were so excited I gathered all our snow gear and bundled the boys up to go play. Daddy took them outside while I stayed inside to wash the dishes. I got 3 dishes washed before I heard the garage door open and they were back inside. Too cold outside. Sheesh! It took longer to find all their winter clothes and bundle them up than it did to play outside. We warmed up with Hot chocolate anyway with hopes of going outside again later. The boys did get outside later and we played with our neighbors down the street. Making a snow mountain (the snow was too powdery to make a snowman). Snow kept falling. I hear we got about 10 inches! Saturday morning Daddy decided we should go on an adventure... hike 1.4 miles down the hill to the nearest bus stop, grab a bus to the train station, and a train to Oma's house. We started out at 8:30am. Nate would not stop talking the whole way... he was super excited! When we got to the bottom of the hill Logan started to get tired. So Daddy carried him. Soon Nate got cold and decided Daddy should put Logan down and carry him instead. At this point there was no turning back, so we pressed on to the bus stop. By the time we got there the boys were in tears and begging to go home. Hmmm. Whose good idea was this? Thankfully after about 20 minutes the bus came and once we started warming up we got excited again about our adventure over to Oma's house. The bus stopped at the train station and our wait was relatively short before we got on the train. We called Papa Jim and he picked us up at the station near their house. Oma had a fresh pot of spaghetti waiting for us! We were so tired we took a little nap before building a snow fort in their back yard. We had lots of fun at Oma's and decided to spend the night since the weather turned from snow to ice (and we didn't want to attempt going UP the hill to our house). In the end we sent Daddy home on the bus system to check on the roads and get our car. He picked us up and we had a relatively safe and easy drive home. What a fun adventure!

Golden Birthday

Somehow my sweet little turkey has grown up on me. 5 years ago we welcomed him into our lives. He is so smart and it's fun to see his personality developing. He is a lot like his Daddy. He says he wants to be either a Bank (Money) counter or Ice Cream Maker (taster) when he grows up. He has worked really hard in swim lessons this year and is close to Level 3. I think he loves the "Dolphin" swim the best. We are so glad he is a part of our family. We had a birthday dinner at Red Robin. Oma and Papa Jim took him out to the dollar store with $5 to spend on whatever he wanted. He even came home with a toy for Logan. I love that little boy!

Working world

This month I have continued to pick up some substantial contract work for an old colleague who needs some assistance. My Mom and Sis-in-Law have made this endeavor possible by helping out with the boys. Who by the way are having so much fun with crafts and fun times they have created for them. I am glad to have the opportunity to sharpen my work skills and round out my resume a bit. So much has changed in the last 6 years!

Vistors

Sweet friends from Israel visited us this last week. We love being able to stay connected to them and our special adventure 5.5 years ago.

Horse riding

We took the boys out to visit my cousin and his horses. We weren't really sure what reaction the boys might have but were glad to see they enjoyed the ride. They are already talking about visiting "clancy" the horse again. Our only complaint was how cold it was! Next time we will have to go when it's a bit warmer.

Family fun

We spent a long weekend with our cousins while Ken's sister got a little get away with her husband. It was a fun filled weekend.

Energia House

Most of January was spent on our old house. Our renters moved out (as expected) and we spent quite a few days cleaning and getting it ready to put on the market and begin yet another house roller coaster ride (which I might add I'm not fond of roller coasters!) It was exciting to have 5 offers within the first 2 days of it being on the market. It was equally disheartening (maybe even more so) to have them either bow out and or ask for credits towards landscaping the backyard. We just put a whole lot of money into this house and are ready to sell it and just be done with it! This house was a wonderful place for us, full of lots of memories, and we will miss it (once we recover from all the grief it's caused us this year!)

Happy New Years

We stayed in this year and celebrated as a family.... and it was nice. We got out the sparkling cider and got some special cupcakes to eat. The boys enjoyed blowing out the candle and yelling Happy New Year. We did it over and over again. Fun times. Then we watched a movie till bed time. Ken and I actually stayed up to watch the ball drop (only to have Tivo turn off as the countdown began!) So I missed the actual turning of the new year and went to bed a little miffed at modern technology. Oh well.